Programme to Digitise Dissertations & Theses Expands in India

Dissertations are an important and valuable tool for literature reviews, as they provide deep coverage and extensive bibliographies which surface sources and ideas that would otherwise be missed. The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) Global database allows fast and seamless discovery of graduate works from a single access point. Direct access to full text for more than 1.7 million works reduces delays in finding materials and enhances the user experience. Further, PQDT Global enables students to cross-search its content with other scholarly material within the library’s own online service.

One of the programmes used to create PQDT Global is the Digital Archiving and Access Program (DAAP) which is an easy, cost effective way for an institution to digitise the valuable historical record of its dissertations and theses. Digitisation projects increase the visibility of research output within the academic community across a range of dissemination channels including PQDT Global, Institutional Repositories and the library catalogue. Development of a digital collection of dissertations and theses saves libraries time, frees up space, and reduces costs of inter-library loans.

ProQuest has been working with partner libraries across the world to enhance the content of its PQDT database and has recently expanded this into India. Five universities have joined the programme and worked with ProQuest to digitize their dissertations and theses archives. Gauhati University, Gujarat University, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Sri Krishnadevaraya University and Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences have all joined the programme.

Dr Yogesh Parekh, University Librarian at Gujarat University stated, “It has been a wonderful experience working with ProQuest who have demonstrated absolute professionalism in conducting this project beginning with the scanning standards, thorough understanding of Shodhganga* specifications, creation of metadata, and preservation techniques. We are very satisfied with their overall execution of the project and would highly recommend them to any university for digitization projects.”

Dr Wooma Sankar Dev Nath, Librarian at K.K. Handiqui Library at Gauhati University said, “ProQuest completed the digitization of theses project under Shodhganga for Gauhati University that involved digitization of nearly 3,000 theses in print spanning years 1950-2012. The project began in 2014 and was completed in a span of 6-7 months. We are very happy with ProQuest’s professional approach and support rendered to the university during the project. We would recommend them to any university in India for digitization of doctoral theses and dissertations.”

According to Dr. Ravi Raju, Vice Chancellor, NTR University “ProQuest put forward a wonderful initiative of digitizing our print theses and converting to electronic format. This has helped us immensely to address the storage concerns for print material and we are very happy with the collaboration with ProQuest for this project”

While Dr. Gangadhariah, Information Scientist, SKU Anantapur stated “We decided to partner with ProQuest on the basis of their merits and technical expertise in digitization of theses projects. We also received good feedback from other universities and were happy to award the digitization project to them which has been progressing well so far”.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) Global is the seminal repository of emerging research from the world’s greatest universities. PQDT Global enhances the visibility of both the institution and its dissertation production in the worldwide research community.

Originally created in 1939, PQDT has grown to include comprehensive coverage from institutions around the world. It has developed to meet the increasing demand of the global research community to archive and disseminate theses from these institutions. The works make a valuable contribution to the scholarly record, raise the profiles of institutions and their authors, and they are invaluable for researchers of all fields in all countries. ProQuest’s growing trove of emerging research is relied upon by scholars as a source of enlightening information and as a pivotal component in making their own scholarly production available to the world’s intellectual communities.

The archive includes full text from 1,800 institutions in more than 60 countries and receives content regularly from more than 700 global partners.

Dr Mayank Trivedi, University Librarian in Shrimati Hansa Mehta Library (HML) (http://www.hmlibrary.ac.in) at M S University of Baroda(www.msubaroda.ac.in) believes that, “HML has a well-built print as well as e-resource collection, and we need to make sure its stays relevant, accessible, and affordable. By introducing new e-resources, the usage has increased along with its accessibility. With ProQuest’s latest addition to our collection PQDT, we were able to assist researchers for higher degrees.”

(Shodhganga* - repository for theses for the scholarly community in India)

Dissertations are an important and valuable tool for literature reviews, as they provide deep coverage and extensive bibliographies which surface sources and ideas that would otherwise be missed. The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) Global database allows fast and seamless discovery of graduate works from a single access point. Direct access to full text for more than 1.7 million works reduces delays in finding materials and enhances the user experience. Further, PQDT Global enables students to cross-search its content with other scholarly material within the library’s own online service.

One of the programmes used to create PQDT Global is the Digital Archiving and Access Program (DAAP) which is an easy, cost effective way for an institution to digitise the valuable historical record of its dissertations and theses. Digitisation projects increase the visibility of research output within the academic community across a range of dissemination channels including PQDT Global, Institutional Repositories and the library catalogue. Development of a digital collection of dissertations and theses saves libraries time, frees up space, and reduces costs of inter-library loans.

ProQuest has been working with partner libraries across the world to enhance the content of its PQDT database and has recently expanded this into India. Five universities have joined the programme and worked with ProQuest to digitize their dissertations and theses archives. Gauhati University, Gujarat University, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Sri Krishnadevaraya University and Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences have all joined the programme.

Dr. Yogesh Parekh, University Librarian at Gujarat University stated, “It has been a wonderful experience working with ProQuest who have demonstrated absolute professionalism in conducting this project beginning with the scanning standards, thorough understanding of Shodhganga* specifications, creation of metadata, and preservation techniques. We are very satisfied with their overall execution of the project and would highly recommend them to any university for digitization projects.”

Dr. Wooma Sankar Dev Nath, Librarian at K.K. Handiqui Library at Gauhati University said, “ProQuest completed the digitization of theses project under Shodhganga for Gauhati University that involved digitization of nearly 3,000 theses in print spanning years 1950-2012. The project began in 2014 and was completed in a span of 6-7 months. We are very happy with ProQuest’s professional approach and support rendered to the university during the project. We would recommend them to any university in India for digitization of doctoral theses and dissertations.”

According to Dr. Ravi Raju, Vice Chancellor, NTR University “ProQuest put forward a wonderful initiative of digitizing our print theses and converting to electronic format. This has helped us immensely to address the storage concerns for print material and we are very happy with the collaboration with ProQuest for this project.”

While Dr. Gangadhariah, Information Scientist, SKU Anantapur stated “We decided to partner with ProQuest on the basis of their merits and technical expertise in digitization of theses projects. We also received good feedback from other universities and were happy to award the digitization project to them which has been progressing well so far.”

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) Global is the seminal repository of emerging research from the world’s greatest universities. PQDT Global enhances the visibility of both the institution and its dissertation production in the worldwide research community.

Originally created in 1939, PQDT has grown to include comprehensive coverage from institutions around the world. It has developed to meet the increasing demand of the global research community to archive and disseminate theses from these institutions. The works make a valuable contribution to the scholarly record, raise the profiles of institutions and their authors, and they are invaluable for researchers of all fields in all countries. ProQuest’s growing trove of emerging research is relied upon by scholars as a source of enlightening information and as a pivotal component in making their own scholarly production available to the world’s intellectual communities.

The archive includes full text from 1,800 institutions in more than 60 countries and receives content regularly from more than 700 global partners.

Dr. Mayank Trivedi, University Librarian in Shrimati Hansa Mehta Library (HML) (http://www.hmlibrary.ac.in) at M S University of Baroda (www.msubaroda.ac.in) believes that, “HML has a well-built print as well as e-resource collection, and we need to make sure its stays relevant, accessible, and affordable. By introducing new e-resources, the usage has increased along with its accessibility. With ProQuest’s latest addition to our collection PQDT, we were able to assist researchers for higher degrees.”

(Shodhganga* - repository for theses for the scholarly community in India)